I went to my craft club today. There were just eight of us in a large room with a high ceiling, one 2 metre table each placed well apart, then we all wore masks apart from when eating or drinking. We were all instructed to social distance and not to approach the space of another member.

Thankfully, in Germany, masks are mostly being worn correctly now, very few exposed noses. This might have to do with a beautiful and quickly invented word which effectively uses a semi-crude term for the male part (comparable to the "Richard" one) to suggest an inappropriate "hang-out".

And it works, Sue. That's been more or less the situation in my Care home for 11 months, with a few more people involved!. Not one of us is affected.

I'm getting mad here. Our CDC equivalent urgently recommends a hard lockdown. Major scientific institutes urge for a hard lockdown. The population is 60%+ in favor of an immediate hard lockdown, numbers rising every day. Our chancellor and federal secretary of health are urging a hard lockdown.

But the decision rests with the state governors (Ministerpräsidenten) who constantly repeat "But school is sooooo important! Education! Social Skills!" and similar phrases and refuse to do it. (Yeah, right. As if more than 10% of my hours wasted away at school had been of any use).

We have 4 more days to turn around in order to still get a good week of lockdown before Christmas. And that would be VITAL because just that one week would protect thousands of elderly who would otherwise be in grave danger from the family visits people can't seem to live without even for one year. Come on!

Here in the USA the major talking point against lockdowns is the economy. And oh, yeah, schools are tacked on at the end. Also belatedly mentioned against lockdowns are the detrimental mental health aspects of a lockdown. I'll agree that isolation will bring on feelings of anxiety and depression. I also become angry over the decades of budget cuts to the federal funds that helped mental health clinics and hotlines stay afloat. Now suddenly those same people that ruthlessly cut the funding now care about the mental health of the populace. .... I'm taking a pause now for my anger to die down ......
Okay, turning on the news to calm down was a bad idea.


Wesley, I doubt that rude nickname in Germany for people with noses hanging over their masks would have much effect in the part of New York State that I live in. We would need something ruder. Fortunately I do see few people that have their noses hanging out. When I do see them, no one has objected when I pointed it out to them. No one I know is expecting to spend time with their family for Christmas.

My younger brother is quarantining his family for three weeks because his daughter's college closed at Thanksgiving until January. My neice & nephew did leave the house once. They came and knocked on my front door on Thanksgiving to bring me dinner. I talked to them thru a window while they stood ten feet away. Since then, everyone has been locked inside or in their backyard only.

It's not how rude the term is, it's how it evoked someone's (yeah that one) hanging out in public. Some places actually put up drawings making the same comparison. The picture (and the frequency with which pre-teen kids loudly used that word in view of an improperly worn mask - and most parents didn't exactly discourage it ) stuck quickly. It was not much more than a week before hangout noses had gone from about 30% to almost nil.

With all the talk about the economy, it's often forgotten that thousands of sick people, and dead people, are Bad For The Economy. The fastest way to get the economy back on track is to get the numbers down. The deniers are delaying economic recovery.

I agree with you agony. Think of the doctors and nurses working all those hours in hospitals and how they could contribute to the economy if they had some free time. They are all working over time so that means more money to spend! No more part time hours for anyone! Nurses and doctors have come out of retirement to work. That gives them more to spend!

I hope everyone realizes my remarks above were meant to be obnoxious. Insisting on opening the economy when the virus was never under control in America has led to an appalling amount of people dying daily. We have more people dying daily than some countries have had die in total. It's disgusting. It's horrifying. If I think about it too much, I can frighten myself into a panic attack. I might consider going to hide in the smuggler's room in my basement for the next six months.

Today there is an emergency debate in our parliament about schools closing tomorrow evening, the teachers all want it, they are scared that they will end up isolation for Christmas. Tonight there will be a press conference to say what the rules will be for Christmas, how many people permitted to meet up in homes etc.

Our care homes are in lockdown, no visitors permitted because of the vaccination programme which starts on Monday. They are saying they will/can not vaccinate anyone who could have covid so no visitors until they have all had their two doses, three weeks apart, then I think another week to build immunity.

Yesterday we had 602 active cases, for a population of just over 100,000. Today's results are due at any time. Today there are 630 active cases, some of the 602 will have recovered so there will be more than 28 new cases today. A total disgrace.

News just in,....

36 staff members are isolating and 60% of students have been sent home due to coronavirus cases within Les Quennevais School in Jersey.
...............................

This is why they need to shut schools this week, it isn't fair on the teachers.

So very true. Here most businesses are open, yet some previously high-traffic areas are very sparsely frequented. Yesterday I was at a mall just outside the Pentagon, which is generally very crowded. At lunchtime, there was hardly anyone around, either inside or in the street. There are lots of offices in that area, and clearly most employees are working from home for safety reasons.

As to the deniers, I'll just say that this pandemic has shown the worst in people. On another forum I've frequented for the past 15 years, a few skeptics and tinfoil hatters have reared their ugly heads, and made the place uncomfortable for those who don't see the pandemic as a hoax or a ploy to sink the economy.

For all those [censored] that keep insisting that Covid is a hoax or keep saying it is their personal choice to catch Covid or not and they "will be fine" if they do get infected, they need to volunteer at a hospital full of Covid patients. They can do janitorial work or deliver clean laundry. Better yet, they can clean a room after a patient dies. Let them see how often that happens.

Yay!

They started vaccinating here in Jersey today, in care homes.

Our cases have spiked again, it looks as if there are 91 new cases with more than 600 test results pending.

A major problem for a small island. Our ambulance service needs 30 people at any one time to staff the ambulances, they have more than half of their staff either sick or isolating and are down to 33 staff, 34 being off work. Many more and we cannot staff the service. They have called in St John ambulance volunteers but they are more like first-aiders and not qualified to do many things required. Also, legally the ambulances are not permitted to exceed the speed limit if they have volunteers onboard.

That is terribly worrying, Sue. As far as the vaccine goes, we start vaccinating on Sunday, but unfortunately I will not be able to have one.

This is crazy. We are not even fully out of our second lockdown yet, and on checking the figures just now, at 8pm our time, there are 3,690 new cases confirmed since midnight.

We had 100 new cases since yesterday.

On your tiny island, that's terrible.

I just saw a graph with stats of new cases from the UK, the EU and the USA and hey, guess what, we are top! Yes, our new cases per 100,000 of population are the highest.

Another press conference this evening, I bet they still won't lock us down.

Sue, I'm so sorry. No one should beat the United States at our horrible record. That is .... You know what it is. Stay away from other people is the only advice I can give.

Sue, that is absolutely frightening. Please keep safe.

For good news, my friend in Victoria, Australia posted yesterday they had gone over 45 days without a new case.

That is good news.

Sign of the times, I signed up for a video call visit with Santa. If there's no lines and it's cheaper, maybe this will be our new tradition instead of schlepping to the mall and waiting in the REALLY long line.

Here in Tennessee, they announced today that we have the highest number of new cases per capita in the entire US. But still, we have no statewide mask mandate and everything is open. The bar and restaurant parking lots are as full as ever. On the rare occasions I go into a store, about half the people are not wearing masks.

Our governor has mandated that only county mayors may enact a mask mandate; individual cities may not. The largest city in my county has formally requested on three different occasions that the county mayor allow them to institute a city-wide mask mandate, and three times she has refused.

Short of some mask wearing and partial virtual learning for schoolchildren, I see very little evidence that most people have altered their lifestyles in any way. They are eating in restaurants, drinking in bars, going to the gym and movie theaters, having parties, and traveling. And I feel that they are doing it on the backs of those of us who are trying to do the right thing, the sensible thing, and on the backs of the health care workers and grocery workers who would face so much less danger if only people wouldn't be so selfish. It's because of them that we are in such a mess now.